Peter von Cornelius, (born September 23?, 1783, Düsseldorf, Palatinate [Germany]—died March 6, 1867, Berlin) painter notable for his part in the German revival of fresco painting in the 19th century. His early works are unremarkable examples of Neoclassicism. But his style gradually changed under the influence of German Gothic art, German Romantic writers, and Dürer’s marginal drawings for the prayer book of Emperor Maximilian.

In 1811 Cornelius went to Rome, where he joined a group of young German painters, the Nazarenes, or Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund), led by Franz Pforr and J.F. Overbeck. In 1819 Cornelius was invited to Munich by the Bavarian crown prince, later King Ludwig I, to decorate the new museum of Classical sculpture (Glyptothek). In 1824 he became director of the Munich Academy. His Last Judgment (1829–40), filling the whole east wall of the Ludwigskirche in Munich, is notable for its clarity and didactic purpose. In 1841 Frederick William IV called Cornelius to Berlin, where his main occupation was the planning of a vast cycle of frescoes (never executed) for the walls of a cemetery, modelled on the Campo Santo in Pisa.

At heart Cornelius was always an academic artist, even if his outlook was shaped by Romantic philosophy. But he remains a notable artist by virtue of his penetrating intellect, which gave substance to his large dogmatic pictures and order to their composition.

...of them, Friedrich Overbeck, Franz Pforr, Ludwig Vogel, and Johann Konrad Hottinger, moved in 1810 to Rome, where they occupied the abandoned monastery of Sant’Isidoro. There they were joined by Peter von Cornelius, Wilhelm von Schadow, and others who at various times were associated with the movement. They soon acquired the originally derisive nickname Nazarenes because of their affectation...

...of natural phenomena, he drew from corpses in University College Hospital in London when painting his Prisoner of Chillon (1843). During a visit to Italy in 1845, he met Peter von Cornelius, a member of the former Lukasbund, or Nazarenes. This meeting undoubtedly influenced both Brown’s palette and his style. His interest in brilliant, clear colour and neomedievalism...

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(1783-1867). German painter Peter von Cornelius played a major part in the German revival of fresco painting in the 19th century. His major works include Last Judgment (1829-40), which fills the entire east wall of the Ludwigskirche in Munich.